Cost of Potchefstroom Master's Degree

I heard from Chris Killacky concerning Master's degrees offered jointly by GST and Pothch. He told me that the cost would be 4200 U.S. dollars. I told him that according to the Potch site the cost was about $700. He then said that was only for students studying in residence at Potch.

Any comments on this?

"I've worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty." -- Groucho Marx, in 'Monkey Business'

I think they stick it to the Americans. However, it is still relatively cheap compared to the U.S. schools. Personally, for the price difference the Australian schools are a better pick for postgrad degrees.

Originally posted by Michael:I heard from Chris Killacky concerning Master's degrees offered jointly by GST and Pothch. He told me that the cost would be 4200 U.S. dollars. I told him that according to the Potch site the cost was about $700. He then said that was only for students studying in residence at Potch.

Any comments on this?

Michael:

When I began the Ph.D. program in September of 2000, the fee for the masters was 1900 pounds (about $2800.00). It could have increased as of March 1, 2001.

One reason for the difference in price is that the PUCHE/GST program fees are paid directly to GST (then PUCHE's fee is forwarded to them by GST), where if one is studying residentially at PUCHE the fees are paid directly to PUCHE.

The exchange rate for British pounds is like 1 dollar to 1.5 pounds, while the South African Rand is like 1 dollar to 7 Rand. This makes the residential fee much smaller, because it is paid directly to PUCHE via Rand.

Originally posted by Michael:I heard from Chris Killacky concerning Master's degrees offered jointly by GST and Pothch. He told me that the cost would be 4200 U.S. dollars. I told him that according to the Potch site the cost was about $700. He then said that was only for students studying in residence at Potch.

Any comments on this?

Only that, given the cost difference and wider range of specializations, I would now definitely go with UNISA over Potch for a master's.

Yes, definitely. And my second choice now would be Coolamon College in Australia. I could get some advanced standing in their MA in Theological Studies, but the cost, although very reasonable by American standards--about $2300-$2400--is still much more than UNISA. And, as you pointed out in another thread, the MTh is a higher qualification than the MA.

Thanks!

"I've worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty." -- Groucho Marx, in 'Monkey Business'

Originally posted by Michael:Well, I just heard from Dr. Byron Evans about the GST/Potch master's degree program; he said the degree would cost 2200 British pounds, or about $3115. Dr. Chris Killacky said it would cost $4200.

I've already decided against GST/Potch, but if I hadn't, this discrepancy in cost quoted by these men would make me hesitate.

Does this seem peculiar to anyone? Should it be a cause for concern, or is there a reasonable explanation? I guess I am suspicious partly because of GST's former long unaccredited history.

After checking my rate schedule, I found that the figure cited by Dr. Evans is correct; it would be 2200 pounds sterling.
I was wondering at the rate Dr. Killacky quoted you, since I knew my doctorate would run less than $4,000, and it did not seem conceivable to me that a research-based master's would cost more than a doctorate.

Should this be a cause for concern? I'm not sure. I do feel, at times, like the administration of GST is extremely small; I'm happy with the concept and what I've seen of the faculty, and there is certainly academic quality control at Potch, but the fact remains that the registrar of the school quoted an incorrect tuition figure, which gives me cause to raise an eyebrow. All I can figure is that he might have been using an old conversion rate table. Surely he knew the program was 2200 pounds sterling, regardless of what it might be in U.S. funds.

As for its history : I've looked into that pretty thoroughly, and I'm not terribly concerned. From 1958 until 1990ish, Geneva Theological School apparently worked with Geneva Theological College in Indiana, an unaccredited Bible school; there was some connection with the U.K. Philosophical Society, now based at the University of Sheffield, and the Philosophical Society held many a meeting at the home base of Geneva Theological College. When the connection was established with Grinnich, it looked like a credible school and an opportunity for GTS/GST to start fresh. When this folded, GTS/GST was accepted as an accredited theological school of Potchefstroom, along with 17 or so other such institutions worldwide. It's not a particularly prestigious history , but I haven't seen anything to make me believe GTS/GST was itself less-than-wonderful -- and if I had, there would still be the matter of Potch, which is beyond reproach (Cornelius Van Til spoke very highly of its theology faculty some decades ago when he received his honorary Th.D. from same, and then there's the whole F.W. de Klerk connection, which I feel I've covered often enough already). So I'm comfortable with the arrangement, the school, and its history .

But I have to wonder why the registrar quoted you an incorrect tuition figure.

Originally posted by Tom Head:there was some connection with the U.K. Philosophical Society, now based at the University of Sheffield, and the Philosophical Society held many a meeting at the home base of Geneva Theological College.

This should read "Geneva Theological School," of course; Indiana is a little out of the way.